Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has refused to rule out running to be the next Tory leader.

She told the Camilla Tominey show on GB News: “I said to everyone that I don’t want to talk about leadership debates because my constituents, they say that they don’t like us talking about ourselves.”

She added: “People knew that I tried to run two years ago. I didn’t win. Rishi Sunak is the one who had the confidence of MPs. And I think it’s actually disrespectful if people are talking about what they’re going to do after the leadership when he’s still there.

“My job now is to make sure that I win my seat [and] as many of my Conservative colleagues win their seats and do the very best we can for the country and that means supporting the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in what is a very, very difficult job.”

As you drive into Clacton there are scores of pro-Farage Reform posters asking people to “save Britain” in what is becoming a struggle for the soul of right of centre politics, David Maddox writes.

Only as you travel out to the more genteel areas of the constituency like Frinton do they give way to “I stand with Giles” boards. But Giles Watling, the Tory MP defending his Clacton seat, may be the only Conservative candidate in this election with a wide coalition of support across the country willing him to win.

In the wake of the Channel 4 News expose of the Reform Clacton team and the racist comments by one of the canvassers Andrew Parker, Watling received a telephone call from Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, in normal circumstances no lover of Tories.

Claims that Russian-inspired bots might be posting on social media to interfere with the General Election are “cobblers”, Reform UK’s leader has said.

Nigel Farage made his remarks after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) named five Facebook pages which the broadcaster claimed were linked, had shared pro-Russian Kremlin narratives, and in some cases had supported Reform UK.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden described the ABC’s findings as “gravely concerning”.

Asked about the automated technology on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Farage responded: “Oh, don’t talk cobblers.”

He added: “I mean you had this, this, this bland fellow on earlier who apparently is the Deputy Prime Minister, who no-one knows who he is, and there he is saying, ‘oh, there are Russian bots involved’.

“Hang on, did you ask him how many millions of pounds his party have taken from Russian sources over the course of the last few years?

“This is the Russia hoax.”

Addressing a Reform UK rally at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, former Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe said Nigel Farage’s party would “bring common sense back to Britain” and “get rid of woke”.

She told thousands of Reform supporters: “We stand for two words above all – common sense.”

After accusing the Tories of putting all their “eggs in the Rwanda basket” without a plan B, Ms Widdecombe said there was no reason why Reform UK should not form the official opposition following Thursday’s poll.

“These next four days are crucial,” she said, adding that she had “heard more common sense” in the last five years than in her previous 55 years in the Conservative Party.

Rishi Sunak said there is a “clear difference” between his handling of the racism row surrounding Tory donor Frank Hester and how Nigel Farage has responded to racist comments made about the Prime Minister by a Reform UK canvasser.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, the Prime Minister was shown a message from a viewer who condemned the campaigner’s language but expressed concern that Mr Sunak’s stance on racism had not been zero-tolerance.

The viewer pointed to Mr Hester, from whom the Tories continued to accept donations, having allegedly said Diane Abbott “should be shot” and made him “want to hate all black women”.

Mr Sunak said: “I think it’s reasonable when someone is genuinely contrite about what’s happened, accepts what they’ve done is wrong, then that apology is accepted.”

He added: “The difference here is… Nigel Farage has just described these comments as ‘inappropriate’.

“They’re not inappropriate. They were vile and racist and wrong, but he’s only said that they’re inappropriate.

“The person who made them has only apologised to the Reform Party for the impact it’s had on them. It’s a very clear difference. There’s no contrition or remorse or acceptance of what’s happened in that case.”

Rishi Sunak has said he is “proud” of his disastrous election campaign – and claimed he would win Thursday’s general election.

The prime minister has come under fire in recent weeks for a series of calamities that included a rain-soaked announcement of polling day, leaving D-Day commemorations early and a gambling scandal.

But in a crunch interview with just days to go before the vote, Mr Sunak told the BBC‘s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show “this campaign is something I am very proud of” as he sought to highlight Labour’s plans.

Rishi Sunak said the slur used about him by a Reform UK canvasser was “deeply inappropriate and racist”.

The Prime Minister told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show that anyone becoming a politician expects a degree of criticism because it “comes with the territory”.

But he went on: “But in this instance, you know, what was said was deeply inappropriate and racist.”

Mr Sunak said he hated having to repeat the phrase used about him but thought it was important to call it out.

He said that Britain is “the most successful multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy anywhere in the world”, adding: “That’s why views like this are so damaging and so wrong.

“They belong to a minority of people and they deserve to be called out for what they are, and that’s what I did.”